By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, March 19 -- UN Peacekeeping and its Contingent-Owned Equipment arm, already under fire in South Sudan for at a minimum mislabeling weapons and transporting them by road in violation of stated policy, is now embroiled in a controversy in Malawi.
It is reported that:
The government of Malawi President Joyce Banda is facing pressure to reveal documents related to proceeds from the sale of a presidential jet to British Virgin Islands company Bohnox Enterprises. President Banda maintained her earlier stance during a recent press conference in the capital, Lilongwe. “I was the one who said, ‘Let’s sell the jet,’ but I didn’t do it alone," she explained. "I presented the issue before the Cabinet meeting where we agreed that we should use the money for buying maize. We also agreed to buy military equipment for the peacekeeping mission in DRC, buying medicine and contributing to the farm input subsidy program.”
Jessie Kabwila is the spokesperson for the leading opposition party in parliament, Malawi Congress Party. She says the component of trading off does not hold water because the Public Financial Management Act does not allow barter as a form of trade. She says that for claims of funding the United Nations Peace Keeping Mission to be viable, the government should produce an invoice claiming the refund of the money from the U.N. and another transaction from the U.N. acknowledging the same to the Malawi government.
This was reported by Voice of America, on whose Broadcasting Board of Governors US Secretary of State John Kerry serves (and which, in full disclosure, tried to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN, in a complaint it filed with the UN's now spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, click here to view).
And so on March 19, Inner City Press asked the office of the UN Spokesperson:
Inner City Press: I wanted to ask you, in Malawi, there’s some controversy about the President, Joyce Banda, selling the presidential jet. And her response in a press conference was to say, in terms of where the funds from the sale of the jet went, was to say — we have agreed to buy military equipment for the peacekeeping mission in the DRC, in which they are part of the Force Intervention Brigade. So, the opposition party has said that for that to check out at all, there would have to be some kind of an invoice from DPKO (Department of Peacekeeping Operations) showing that the funds were used for that and also… whether the equipment was bought for the Force Intervention Brigade. I wanted to know, is the UN or DPKO aware of any use by Malawi of proceeds from the sale of the presidential jet to fund equipment for the Force Intervention Brigade in DRC?
Deputy Spokesman: I’m not personally aware of that, but I’ll have to check with our colleagues in peacekeeping. Yes?
[The Deputy Spokesman later shared the following information from the Department of Peacekeeping Operations: “All troop-contributing countries (TCCs) are responsible for procuring and carrying their own equipment, when their personnel are deployed to UN Peacekeeping Missions. The TCC does not inform the UN about how and where it procures such equipment.”]
Does this added in answer resolve the controversy? Watch this site.
